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Personal Social Media Account Security

For many of us, social media has become a part of our everyday lives and helps us conveniently keep tabs on the people and topics we care most about.

Recently however, there has been an increase of social media account take overs by cybercriminals. As stated in the media, one contributing factor in some of the social media account takeovers has been the use of weak passwords.

Tips for creating a stronger password:

Passwords should typically:

be at least 8 characters in length

contain at least 1 number

contain at least 1 special character (!@#$$%)

contain both upper and lower case characters.

Do not use your name, date of birth, maiden name, mother’s maiden name, address, or other easily guessable words for passwords.

Another way to create a strong password is to use a series of words that do not relate to each other. For example, JumpingFastRelaxStop!#.

Social media additional security options:

Another way to help avoid social media account takeover is to use the additional security options available. Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security that drastically decreases your chances of account takeover. Two-factor authentication is essentially the using of two separate components to verify your identity, the combination of something you HAVE with something you KNOW. A good example of two-factor authentication you most likely are already used to is withdrawing cash from an ATM, for example. Having both your debit card AND knowing a pin number is required to complete the withdrawal and protect your identity.

A popular and convenient two-factor authentication method is using a combination of both an online password and a text message verification sent to your phone. Enabling this type of authentication typically follows this process:

Enter your password into Facebook or another website

Immediately receive a text on your phone with a temporary pass key

Enter the passkey received back on the site/app and you’re logged in

This may seem like overkill, but enabling this two-factor authentication will drastically decrease the chances of your social accounts being hacked. And actually, the process of setting up and using this authentication is pretty simple and convenient.

How to enable two-factor authentication:

Many popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and others already support two-factor authentication. To learn more about how to do so on the most popular sites on the web, be sure to check out this article: